Why Upland Optics Doesn't do Discounts, Sales, or Coupons

Jun 19, 2019

Everyone loves getting a deal. That’s why each month hundreds of people are looking to get a discount or coupon code for our products. This accelerates during the holiday shopping season, with the mad rush for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in full swing. However, those looking for such promotions from us will always come up empty-handed. Why would we do something that goes against what our customers want?

When we first started operating several years ago, we decided that we would never do any kind of discounting. There are many reasons for this, and I’ll explain them as best I can so you can understand why this actually benefits YOU as a consumer of our products.

A Discount Today Means a Rip Off Every Other Day

There are tons of companies that regularly do sales, discounts, and other types of price-driven promotions. While they sound nice in the moment, they disguise the fact that the company overcharges whenever they aren’t running a sale.

For example, let’s say one of our competitors was offering 30% off on a pair of binoculars. All this really means is that everyone who bought at full price yesterday paid 30% more than they had to.

If you buy from us, you know you are paying the best possible price no matter what time of year it is. You don’t have to worry about whether or not our marketing director is going to feel pressured to increase sales next week and offer a coupon code.

Avoiding the Slippery Slope

I’ve personally witnessed what can happen to a company that starts using discounts extensively. It becomes a slippery slope, and the only way to keep sales coming in the door is to keep offering bigger and more exciting discounts.

While it might sound great in theory to lower prices, the problem is that it inevitably means that the company will have to make cuts to the product itself in order to make it possible to discount the price at any given time. We decided long ago that we would never compromise the quality of our product. We pay for top quality gear ourselves, and we know our customers want to do the same. Bargain shoppers will look elsewhere.

Consistent Value

The bottom line is that because we don’t do any discounting, we can offer consistent value in our products. Our Perception HD Binoculars have been $250 since we launched them, and have never gone a penny lower.

Our pricing is transparent and free of gimmicks. You know what you’re paying, and we know how high-quality a product we can offer in exchange for that. It never changes.

But I found a Coupon Site Offering 10% Off!

Sorry, it’s a scam. There are many websites that try to take advantage of our (and many others) affiliate program by offering a discount that isn’t real so that you click through their links and they earn commissions on your purchase. We specifically have outlawed all coupon sites from our affiliate network, but occasionally one sneaks through. Let us know if you find one!